Minister of Foreign Affairs Bujar Osmani told TV21 on Thursday evening that Bulgarians in Macedonia should feel like free citizens with equal rights.

Bulgarians in Macedonia should feel like free citizens who can be organized as a collective community, and they will have all the rights, and if necessary, they will be mentioned in the Constitution, says Osmani.

Asked whether the Constitution would have to be changed in that case, Osmani said that there was no reservation for them to be mentioned as a separate ethnic community.

We have no reservation to be mentioned as a separate ethnic community, if that means anything to any party, Osmani said.

Asked if Bulgaria had asked for such a thing, he said no.

I have not heard. They have not asked for such a thing. We have not talked about this, added Osmani.

Regarding the reactions to the rights of the Bulgarian community in Macedonia, Osmani on Wednesday asked the representatives of the Bulgarian associations in the country to contact the census organizers to ensure they are counted toward the census in order, as he said, to have the quantitative, demographic and geographic distribution of this community which, according to him, would significantly contribute to plan accordingly in future government policies.